Once again we have a furor of hatred against the American forces in Afghanistan caused by desecration of the Koran. Once again people have died because American troops failed to heed the warnings of the past.

Bagram Air Base Afghanistan

This time it seems that copies of the Muslim holy book were thrown into the garbage ‘by mistake’ and burned by unthinking idiots at Bagram air base. Naturally the desecration was discovered by Afghan civilians working at the dump and, once again, all hell has broken loose. To date six people have died and scores wounded in protests across the country at this action that can only be classified as crass stupidity. One would have thought the military commanders should have learnt from the previous occasion when riots broke out in response to a similar action by the idiot Pastor Terry Jones of Florida in 2010. But no, they make the same mistake all over again.

Muslim Rage At Bagram

When people in the command structure don’t take notice of Muslim hysteria at the burning or otherwise desecration of the Koran its no wonder the Afghan people hate them so much. The danger of course is they are driving more recruits into the arms of the Taliban by such thoughtless acts. One protester in Kabul told Reuters: “When the Americans insult us to this degree, we will join the insurgents.” You have to ask how many more are of this frame of mind, and its for sure the Taliban will use this in their propaganda war against American forces.

It makes no matter what you do to win the hearts and minds of the people, if you continue to make these serious errors in judgement it all goes down the toilet.

Mass Protest

Wake up America! You may be doing a lot of good in the world, but thoughtless acts such as this are making you the most hated country on earth in the Middle East. You can apologise to the people until hell freezes over but it won’t make a jot of difference to how the Muslim people see you. You have been in the Middle East more than long enough to understand the paranoia of the Muslim mind, especially when it comes to their religion, and yet you continue with such actions. It may have been a mistake, but a bigger one I have yet to see.

The Holy Koran

It seems to me the Pentagon perhaps needs to issue a General Order to all American troops to keep their hands off the Koran in all its forms, for a third mistake of this gravity could be sufficient to turn every man, woman and child in the whole arab world against you. Perhaps it is also time to make an example of a senior commander as a way to impress upon others the seriousness of such a rash act.

Without a doubt, this thoughtless act will remain in the minds of Muslims for a very long time, and there is no guarantee they will ever forget. I for one just hope this thoughtlessness does not cost American lives. Remember the words of Napoleon Bonaparte: “Those who ignore the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them”! Words to live by.

I was profoundly shocked to read today that a British fireman refused to go in a pond three feet deep (90cm) to rescue a drowning man because he was only trained to go into water ankle deep! His excuse; Health and Safety Regulations!

R.I.P Simon Burgess - A Life Needlessly Lost

Simon Burgess aged 41 appeared regularly at the model boating lake in Walpole Park, Gosport, England to feed the swans that gathered there. On the day in question he apparently fell into the water suffering from an epileptic fit. He was seen by a 53 year-old woman who called 999 (the UK emergency number), and when firemen arrived at the scene Mr. Burgess was floating face down in the lake.

After the Recovery

On arrival, they refused to enter the water to rescue the poor man because in accordance with Health and Safety Regulations(HSR), they were not trained to go into water above ankle deep. According to the pathologist, Mr. Burgess could very well have been resuscitated at this point. For the man to be rescued from the three foot deep lake a specialist team was required that had been trained to enter water chest deep. At this point a policeman tried to enter the water to get the man out but was restrained and told it was against the HSR. Needless to say, by the time these idiots had got their act together the poor man was dead. Personally, even though I am 69 years old, I would have gone in and rescued the poor man, and to hell with firemen and their H&S Regulations!

Gosport Fire Station - Hang Your Heads In Shame

When interviewed later, Tony Nicholls, a watch manager at Gosport fire station who was first to arrive stated: “The officers were trained to go into ankle deep water, which is level one, so we waited for level two officers, who can go into chest high water. One of the police officers told me he would like to go in the water and I advised him in the strongest terms not to.” Tim Spencer-Peet, Mr Nicholls’s superior said he fully concurred with the action taken by his men. Now if this isn’t a scandal of the highest order I don’t know what is. I can well imagine that pretty soon firemen will refuse to attend a fire because H&S says they may have a traffic accident whilst underway to the fire!

Back When Firemen Were Real Heroes!

But for now we have to accept that once again, a life is needlessly lost because of the stupidity of the current H&S regulations. It is beyond doubt that we have reached a point where the government needs to get these laws into perspective, and stop all this nonsense before people like the fire brigade become totally out of touch with reality. I am pretty sure that many of the dead heroes from yesteryear must be turning in their grave at the sheer cowardice of today’s emergency services. Many of them died in acts of unsurpassable bravery to help people trapped in burning buildings. All members of the Gosport Fire Brigade should hang their heads in shame!

Vivienne Westwood, one of Britain’s top dress designers, has left little doubt on her opinion of British dress sense, or rather lack of it! Commenting on the current sense of style of people in Britain she was quite open in saying “people have never looked so ugly”. In all honesty, I have to admit she is right, and its not just a recent phenomenon.

Wind – A Young Man’s Best Ally

At my age, I have been able to watch the changes in fashion over the past fifty years, and I must admit to feeling somewhat disenchanted over the last two decades. I have seen the wonderful madness of the miniskirt which set the pulse racing of many young males, and I have seen jeans become the number one fashion item. From there we entered the T shirt era which eventually degenerated into the period of the football shirt and track suit trousers, usually, but not specifically among males.

When I do any comparison between the fifties, sixties and today, it becomes rapidly clear that we as a nation are falling far short of the required dress sense. At one time, jeans and a T shirt were what you wore when relaxing at home or working in the garden, but today people wear such attire when they go out shopping, to dinner, the cinema or abroad on holiday. Even when people dress for the occasion, the fashions are so ‘off-the-wall’ as to be ridiculous.

Yeuk!

Many young girls today need to show as much of their belly as possible, i.e. from boob holder all the way down to their fanny, and when you couple that with quite often, a protruding belly, it looks ridiculous. The fatter they are the more they want to show. Teenagers seem to think its ‘cool’ to have the waistline of their jeans or trousers hanging just above their genital area, with the crotch of the jeans hanging down around the knees. It looks stupid!

The following is grotesque but you see it everywhere!

How Does He Keep Them Up?

Many young men dress as though they are about to start a shift at the coal mine in T shirt and baggy jeans. I saw a young man in his early twenties the other day who looked as if he’d been dragged through a rubbish tip. There was so much flared jean material at his ankles his feet were totally invisible, and he had long tassels hanging from a series of pockets on the legs. He was accompanied by a girl in impossibly tight jeans with a miniscule top and fat belly. Definite pantomime material.

Some teenagers take it to the limit!

The main gripe of Vivienne Westwood was the current trend for ‘throw-away’ clothes that seem to infest the ‘designer’ shops like a plague. She blamed for our lack of taste “the rise of cheap “disposable” clothes that curb individuality” and added “that the only well dressed women are usually in their 70s, because they know how to choose investment pieces”. In today’s economic climate, is it not better to buy something you can wear many times, rather than the not so cheap option of one wear items.

Cheap and Nasty

Most people today find it necessary to wear designer clothes as if its a badge of acceptance. From what I have seen when out shopping with my wife, most of the clothes for sale in these outlets are trash. They are flashy in the extreme and don’t last five minutes before something goes wrong with them, and as for washing and re-wearing, forget it. One wash and you might as well line the dog basket with them. In my opinion these designer shops are the biggest ripoff on the high street, after the cosmetic shops that is!

When many of our ‘delicate’ young teenage girls go out to a disco they wear dresses etc from the designer shops and to be honest, they look ‘tarty’. Many of the popular fashion items for young girls these days look identical to the flashy, and often skimpy, items favoured by tarts so many years ago.

The Jeans Trend

Even the style of a simple garment like jeans has changed over the years. When they first became popular, people discovered the practicality of hard-wearing trousers and wore blue jeans that looked new, but soon that was not good enough for the young. They had to have them looking like that had been discarded by a quarry worker after ten years of continuous service.

They Look Like Something the Rubbish Collector Turned His Nose Up At!

Blue jeans were no good any more, they had to have bare patches and be cut open at a variety of places. Pretty soon it got to the stage where the only way jeans manufacturers could sell their product, was to put every pair under the grindstone and slash them with razors. To put it another way, fashion dictated that jeans had to look like they had been worn by a cowboy from the 1880’s for sixty years.

Bangladesh Sweatshop

In the words of Miss Westwood “the demise of fashion comes from the rise of a new generation of shoppers who look to fast-fashion superstores selling on-trend clothes at cheap prices”. In other words, cheap trash from designer outlets, although I have to say, I don’t find anything cheap about these stores as most of their goods are grossly over-priced when you consider the quality. The only ‘cheap’ part of the equation comes from their manufacture, because they are all made in sweatshops in places like China, Thailand and Bangladesh, where they are churned out by the thousand at absolute minimum cost and then shipped to Europe and American to be sold at outrageous prices.

No red-blooded man (even me) would object to a pretty young teenager showing off a little more than normal!

Typical ‘Well-Dressed’ Brit

From my own point of view, my wife wanted me to buy some new trousers at some designer outlet, I forget which, and I must admit they looked good in the shop. The first time I wore them, it turned out the material was a magnet for every bit of fluff and dust in the atmosphere and after half an hour looked like I had walked through the factory of a cotton manufacturer (airborne cotton dust). Needless to say, I never wore them again. That was over a €120 wasted!

Trend Among Many Teens

So yes! I can agree with Miss Westwood in every sense of the word. Today, in general, many British people have lost all sense of taste when it comes to dressing. Up to the sixties everyone was well dressed when they went out, even just to do shopping but now, sadly, the most common sight on the high street is a baggy T shirt, a pair of trainer trousers or tatty jeans and the inevitable trainers. Perhaps you won’t believe this, but one evening I actually saw a man in his twenties dressed in a nice suit, shirt and tie obviously headed for a party or on a date, and guess what he had on his feet? Trainers, that’s what! The mind boggles.

People have lost their sense of direction when it comes to looking good, and most of the blame must be laid at the feet of modern dress designers who set the fashion, and retail outlets who continually dump their trash on the main street. For dress sense to change we need a major shift in emphasis, firstly by the designers and then by the high street. Until that day dawns, or people become more discerning in what they buy, things will never get better.

” My dog just crapped on the carpet” or “I woke up with a hangover this morning” are some of the ludicrous messages people share with the world on Facebook or Twitter, and to be honest, who the hell cares! Internet social sites have become a disease in today’s fast-moving world, and few people seem to be immune. But unknown to most, there are dangers in broadcasting to the world your daily life.

It has been revealed that most of these sites harvest your personal information such as your entireaddress book, complete with names, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses without your knowledge. This seems to me a grievous violation of your civil right to privacy. To put it simply, download e.g. the Facebook or Twitter App on your phone, and the company has access to your private data, much of which it stores without your knowledge and consent.

This invasion of privacy is not confined to any one site, but seems to be a universal practice with most, if not all of them. The main culprit seems to be the “Find Friends’ apps that can be downloaded from phone manufacturers like Apple. This company has been criticised by two US Senators who have written to the company asking why this is allowed, considering it is against Apple’s own rules. Company guidelines state: “Apps that read or write data outside its designated container area will be rejected.” They add: “Apps cannot transmit data about a user without obtaining the user’s prior permission.” Yea Right!

The excuse used by companies that feature this App say they only use the data to identify friends of the people using the service. Of course, ‘I am sure none of this information gets into the hands of advertising companies who want to send you ads all day long, and most certainly wouldn’t be used for market research’!

Twitter tells users that it “may customize your account with information such as a cellphone number for the delivery of SMS messages or your address book so that we can help you find Twitter users you know” and they inform iPhone users that they will “scan (?) your contacts for people you already know on Twitter”. Right! In today’s high pressure world I find it hard to imagine that is all they do for there is a lot of money to be made selling people’s contact data to advertisers and market research companies.

Are You Sure Its Safe?

Whether they do or not, I for one wouldn’t trust it as far as I can throw a 747. Private data should remain just that, private, and I am all for legislation that will totally outlaw these practices and make the gathering of personal data illegal without the full prior permission of the user. Ever since the internet came along and greedy individuals found ways to make masses of money from it, our private lives have been in perpetual danger, and no-one is more susceptible to it than the users of Facebook, Twitter, and the like. These social websites have blossomed into multi-billion dollar entities over the past ten years, and there is little sign the pace is slackening.

I really could not believe what I read today on Yahoo! It seems many of today’s parents do not tell their children traditional fairy stories because some scare them. It seems also that political correctness has struck at the fairy stories we all loved as children.

When questioned by TV channel Watch, one in five of the 2,000 parents questioned on the subject said that in some cases their little darlings were scared when Little Red Riding Hood was read to them because the Big Bad Wolf ate the grandmother. Others said they did not read Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to their children because the term ‘Dwarf’ did not seem appropriate! Some would not read Cinderella because the idea of Cinderella being in the house doing housework all day was ‘outdated’! Goldilocks and the Three Bears was thought to ‘promote stealing’. The stories of Rumpelstiltskin and Rapunzel are considered inappropriate because they feature kidnapping and executions.

It would seem that most parents these days don’t even bother to tell their offspring fairy stories until they reach the age of five. The reason? The kids ask too many awkward questions!

I have to admit that I told my two children fairy stories from the time they were old enough to understand them, and they loved it. In fact I was blackmailed every evening, because they wouldn’t go to sleep without one. After listening to the stories they both quickly fell into a deep untroubled sleep. As you can imagine, it did not take long to go through all the regular tales and so I used to make them up as I went along. Thank goodness I never got asked to repeat a story from the week before!

Wow! Snow White Never Looked THAT Good When I Was A Kid!

Neither of them ever cried or had nightmares from the stories I told, which included Little Red Riding Hood, so I can only assume we are raising weak minded children these days, or the parents are not telling the stories as they should be told. Some of them have been around for over a hundred years and I never heard of them scaring children.

As to the farcical ‘political correct’ approach to fairy stories, the only thing I can say to all those parents is – Get a life and don’t be so childish!

Don’t you get annoyed when silly personalities wishing to get some free publicity stick their noses into business that doesn’t concern them? The latest to join the ranks is Sean Penn, Hollywood star and big friend of Argentina. He had the nerve to call for David Cameron to enter into negotiations with the Argentina government over the Falklands issue.

"Pull the Trigger Man - Pull the Trigger!"

Following the Argentine Presidents line he called Britain ‘Colonial’ saying: “It’s necessary that these diplomatic talks happen between the United Kingdom and Argentina. I think that the world today is not going to tolerate any kind of ludicrous and archaic commitment to colonialist ideology.” Bloody cheek!!!!!!!!!!

How Chummy!

Always a strong supporter of South American nationalism he posed for a photo with President Kirchner when making his announcement, referring to the Falkland Islands as “The Malvinas of Argentina”. He is reported to be a strong supporter of Hugo Chavez and its anybody’s guess as to why he is so in love with South America. I do not care how many films he has made and how many Oscars he has, he should stick to the thing he knows best, acting!

Falklanders in the UK Border Agency?

It seems he hasn’t spared a single thought for the islanders and their wishes. I wonder what he would say if he actually took the trouble to visit the islands and talk to the people. He seems quite content to forget their human rights. I think he had better not go there now, for he may never leave alive! So far as I’m concerned, he better not come to Britain in the near future either! Personally, I would stop him at the airport and declare him ‘Persona Non Grata!” In fact, why don’t we hire some Islanders and give them a job in Passport Control! Stupid pompous little ass!

An eye-opener for many, but Ken Clark has shown his heart is in the right place by attacking the sheer stupidity of the European Court of Human Rights(ECHR). During a speech to the Austrian Diplomatic Academy in Vienna he said in no uncertain terms that the ECHR was in desperate need of reform. After their ruling on the Abu Qatada case, and that prisoners in our country should have full voting rights, I tend to agree.

He claims that the courts are overloaded, and when you take into consideration that in the first 40 years of its existence it handled a total of 45,000 cases, and in 2010 alone 61,300, I can see what he means.

That's Right Ken - You Tell 'Em

During his speech he said: ¨It is individual states and their courts which have primary responsibility for implementing the convention and granting effective remedies. At times, I consider that the court has been too ready to substitute its own judgment for that of national courts and parliaments. It was never meant to be a court of appeal for routine domestic judgments. No court could ever hope to offer redress to 800 million people. National courts are in the best position to understand national problems.” In that I have to agree.

In my opinion, there are more than sufficient safeguards within the national justice system to ensure fairness. What gets peoples backs up in this country is the interference from Strasbourg that dictates e.g. Abu Qatada the terrorist can neither be held in custody, nor deported to Jordan. Also, how dare such a body dictate to us that convicted criminals have as much right to vote as law-abiding citizens?

ECHR - Strasbourg

Abu Qatada is not the only one to have escaped deportation on ´Human Rights´grounds, there have been many before him, such as Mohammed Ibrahim who ran over a young girl (Posted 17/12/2010). On top of that, many criminals have used the infamous Article 8 (Right to family life) defence to escape a jail sentence, in particular I think of burglar Wayne Bishop who I wrote about on the 28th May last year. He escaped a prison sentence because he had five children. He was re-arrested recently on GBH (grievous bodily harm) charges. So much for the loving father whose children cannot live without him.

There have been too many cases where the ECHR has made a mockery of justice in our country, and it has to stop. I for one will be very happy if Ken Clark and David Cameron can introduce legislative changes to the way in which the court operates during Britain´s tenure at the`head of the table´. If that happens, and we rid ourselves of the ridiculous `Human Rights´ appeals to every sentence handed out by the courts, so much the better.

Roy.

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Roy Peters

Welcome to News, Views and Nonsense.

Hi, and welcome!
I can hardly believe this blog is now more than five years old, for it seems like only yesterday when I took my first hesitant steps. A lot has happened in that time, and I must say it has been a great pleasure to write about, and discuss with visitors all the momentous happenings around the world.
Whether you are a frequent visitor, or someone who just dropped by, I hope you will come back, for you are always welcome.

Now that I am a 'Gentleman of Leisure' I have time to indulge in my hobby of writing short stories. I do it for my own pleasure and not for accolades. Although I recently had offers to publish some of them, I found the cost of publication far too much and unfortunately had to decline.
PLEASE NOTE: The stories have now been removed from my blog and published on Amazon for Kindle readers.
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE ARE ON KINDLE ARE: No Time For Mourning - A day in the life of Battle Of Britain Squadron.
Flight of the Rusty Bucket - A bomber crew take on a dangerous raid over Germany.
The Will To Survive - The desperate struggle for survival on a contaminated Earth in 2050.
Rescue Mission. A sequel to The Will To Survive. Our hero, along with two companions, undertakes a dangerous rescue mission.
Escape from the Taliban - An SAS team are captured and must escape a vicious Taliban leader.
The Sinking of the Rodney Star - The desperate days of WW2 Atlantic convoys.
Deadly Duel - The massacre of American troops in the Ardenne
Strike By Night - Commando raid just after D-Day 1944
Code-name Falcon - A WW2 French resistance story
Hell's Valley - The continuing battle against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Lifeboat - The crew of a sunken WW2 convoy vessel fight to survive the merciless Atlantic ocean.
A Refugee's Story - The desperate journey of hope for a Somalian refugee.
Secret of the Golden Sphinx - Murder and intrigue in Ancient Egypt.
Alien City - Two young people stumble upon a secret alien city.
They cost only $0.99 or equivalent so feel free to browse on the Kindle Store webpage.
Roy.

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